Unlock with PatreonThe Problem with CI
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Navigating the School Culture
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7 thoughts on “Navigating the School Culture”
John please send David my best. His kids must be like 6 and 4 by now, right? I’ve always admired him and Robert and Leigh Anne and the other Californians (you included) who have to teach those huge classes. I remember watching some video of David teaching and I could barely see the kids way in the back of the room.
You know, Ben, you mention big classes in California but — at least for me — it’s all I’ve ever known.
Well since our big theme this year is our mental health and self-care, you should at least know that this work requires classes no bigger than 30, in my mind, and no smaller than about 10, and those 10 better have some personality and fun in it. And in my view the middle schoolers have it all over the high schoolers for fun. So decent size classes in middle schools are your best bet, in my opinion. If you have been doing really big classes in a high school for years, then keep that in mind in terms of the longevity of your career. Youth is great, but many younger CI teachers take on more than is good for them, in reaction to their great success with stories. I would recommend checking out middle school jobs in smaller classes at some point. I’m sure others might disagree but that is how I see it after 29 years in a high school and 9 in a middle school.
He and Hosler have 3 young ones at home, and they’re doing amazing work in the classrooms. blows my mind.
You know – it’s time we learn how to navigate our school cultures. It fits in with the Design Thinking thread we have here. Why go to work for someone and tell them that their place sucks and needs to change? I’m recommending more Stealth CI. It’s time for that. Unless you want to be harried and nervous and out of balance all the time. I think it was Inayat Khan who spoke of “right adjustment to others” in life.
Yes. To self care, mental health (ours…bc we can’t offer if we are tapped out), “stealth CI, etc.”
This whole thread reminds me of a statement from one of my teachers: “Teach your students their next step, not your next step.” Oh yeah! I have to remind myself constantly about this. And I forget it all the time.
I would argue that the obstacle is not large classes, but a resistant school culture. Bob Patrick and David Maust are doing CI work with large classes, and are doing it in a way that is sustainable from the perspective of self-care. They have also maneuvered politically so that their work is seen as an asset. These two, and others are providing us with models for doing this in large public schools, if (and that is a big if) the school culture is open to it. The key is getting that green light from admin, or from gradually making allies.